Helpful Hints for Writers Needing Exposure

There are a few things that you should not do to advertise for your book. The most obvious is to spam everyone and everything related to the Internet to get people to buy your work. Think like a consumer. Do those LOUD obnoxious advertisements on television irritate you or spur you to go out and buy the product?

Don’t be one of THOSE people.

Also, don’t let other people convince you to buy into their idea of what will help YOU sell your work. Listen, if taking out an ad in your local newspaper is what you believe will make a sale for you, do it. But don’t listen to Mr. Whositwhatsit tell you that ads in the local paper for six months every Sunday issue will net you untold billions of sale. What it may do instead is net you a lot of unwanted debt.

BE smart!

Now, how about a few things that might work? Here’s a short list:

1. Build a fantastic website and/or blogsite. People come out to find you once they hear about you. They do not always pick up the local paper to find out about you, but if you have a website, they will usually surf by.

2. Go to conferences. You will make connections with people who can help you and yes, even meet readers! Imagine that! There is no book review in the world that can sell your book like you can over a cup of hot tea at a table for five.

3. Write a few articles. Find three markets where you can post an article about something timely and informational and also blurb your book. There are a lot of people out there seeking information about something you know about. Capitalize on it!

4. Try a short story. There is a growing love of the short work. Many people are downloading short stories to their eReader just to be able to get some good fiction in before they have to move on to another thing in their busy life. I could read a short story while waiting at the doctor’s, dentist’s, or on another appointment. Don’t discount the opportunity of using the short form to introduce a potential reader to your longer work.

Okay, so there you have it. Things to do and things not to do. Not that I know anything at all about it. I am still just dangling one toe in the book writing business.
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Kim Smith is the author of the zany Shannon Wallace mysteries, several contemporary romances, and a new YA time travel, A Mirror in Time, available now.